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Neat to know ~ Feature of the week
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The Right to Repair Movement
Why we should be able to fix our stuff (and not throw it away)
Image: Skitterphoto
Think about some of your most-used daily tools: your smart phone, computer, or tablet, for example. What happens when one of them breaks? Would it even cross your mind to try to repair it? Probably not. It’s likely that you would think, “Well, I guess it’s time to get a new one.” But the idea of replacing rather than repairing the products we use is rather new. Not too long ago, people could fix almost everything they owned. This is not because people were smarter than we are today, but rather because the things they owned were simpler to fix! Things were easy to open up and tinker around with, using everyday tools that were lying around the house. Replacement parts were easy to find. And, if repairing it yourself wasn’t possible, you could go to a local fix-it shop where someone else could do the repairs for not all that much money.
The fact that we cannot fix a lot of our stuff ourselves – and cannot get help unless we go back to the manufacturers (who then charge high prices to make the repairs or replacements) – is seen as a growing problem by people in the so-called Right to Repair movement. They believe that companies deliberately block consumers from being able to fix the items they buy. Proponents of Right to Repair say that there should be certain laws in place that would require manufacturers of electronics to make it possible to repair any device we purchase, either ourselves or through a repair shop of our choosing.
Here’s the problem.
Electronics companies make more money if they sell products that don’t last very long. Yes, that’s true! If you buy a new phone instead of fixing your old one, the manufacturer profits. Making products that break or become outdated and thus unusable within a short period of time is called planned obsolescence. And tech manufacturers have been using this practice to promote a throwaway culture that at best encourages, at worst forces, consumers to replace their products frequently. Phones that require special screw drivers to open them up, appliances with parts that can’t be replaced, special glues that are used to make opening up products impossible without destroying the whole device in the process, and repair manuals that are unavailable to consumers or local repair shops, are just a few of the roadblocks preventing us from fixing the electronics products we own.
An obvious result of planned obsolescence is that consumers find themselves in a cycle of spending more -and getting less – while companies’ profits skyrocket. People are hooked into wanting and needing devices that are on the market and willingly pay top dollar for them. But those devices inevitably need replacing within a short amount of time, since they are made to become out-dated or irreparable. In our tech-obsessed world, the consumer clearly gets the short end of the stick.
E-waste
An enormous amount of waste is created by this cycle of consumption. Nathan Proctor is the director of the Campaign for the Right to Repair at the Public Interest Research Group. “When you can’t fix something, it means that it ends up in the waste stream before it might normally need to,” he said in a 2018 interview with Living on Earth, when asked about how the Right to Repair movement addresses concerns about environmental impact. Proctor went on to say that the amount of e-waste is growing at an alarming rate. The UN estimates that there are some 60 million tons of electronics – including phones, computers, appliances, and also large machines like farm equipment – being tossed on a yearly basis. “That’s the equivalent of 125,000 jumbo jets,” said Proctor.
Only a very small part of e-waste is recycled. 85% of it ends up in landfills or is burned. Because of the many toxic materials that comprise e-waste, burning it releases contaminants into the air. Leaving e-waste in landfills causes toxins to seep into the land and water. Many landfills and burning sites that contain e-waste from Europe and the U.S. are located in Asia and Africa.
E-waste takes a human toll. In countries such as Ghana and India, people are paid a pittance to comb through the areas where e-waste is dumped in search of discarded bits from which precious metals can be extracted. Without protective gear, they are exposed to harmful toxins. Many of these workers are children.
Besides the obvious harm that e-waste does to people and to the environment, the unbridled production of new electronics contributes to global warming and uses up natural resources. Mining for materials that go into our high-tech devices destroys the land. Some 300 million computers and more than a billion mobile phones are produced annually. And these rates are increasing.
What the Right to Repair movement demands
It’s about the rights of consumers. And it’s about turning around our current throwaway culture that hurts people and the planet. The proponents of Right to Repair say that products should be designed to be fixable. There should be no parts, repair manuals, or software that are off-limits to consumers or to businesses that service broken electronics. People should have the right – by law, the movement says – to fix everything they own or to choose where to go to have their things fixed.
Progress
Governments have slowly begun to recognize the need for action. Next year in Europe, there will be new rules put in place which will regulate the right to repair of laptops, phones, and tablets, as well as appliances like washing machines and refrigerators. The United States Congress is discussing a bill that would put right to repair rules on medical devices – necessary now during the coronavirus pandemic. In some parts of the U.S., there are already right to repair laws with respect to cars.
While such measures are far less than what supporters of the Right to Repair movement are pushing for, it is still a step toward laws that put the rights of consumers and the good of the planet ahead of unencumbered profit-making by electronics manufacturers.
Source: Aquina, Paola-Rosa, The New York Times, “Fix, or Toss? The Right to Repair Movement Gains Ground,” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/23/climate/right-to-repair.html, 10/23/20; Wernick, Adam, Living on Earth PRI, “The Right to Repair movement wants you to be able to fix your own stuff,” https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-12-24/right-repair-movement-wants-you-be-able-fix-your-own-stuff; 12/24/18; The World Counts, “Electronic Revolution=E-Waste,” https://www.theworldcounts.com/stories/electronic-waste-facts; Harris, John, The Guardian, “Planned obsolescence: the outrage of our electronic waste mountain,” https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/apr/15/the-right-to-repair-planned-obsolescence-electronic-waste-mountain